Taking a stab at addressing voters' concerns around the rising cost of living, the Social Democratic Party (SPD) announced a proposal to create a “Germany Basket” (Deutschland-Korb), or a selection of affordable, price-stable staple foods that are produced domestically.
The party also proposed setting up a price monitoring agency to detect problematic pricing trends and combat “shrinkflation” – a tactic reportedly used by some food product producers to increase profits by decreasing the size of their products while keeping prices the same.
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Regarding the "Germany basket", the SPD proposal is basically to ask German grocers to offer it voluntarily in their stores.
So would Germany-based supermarkets and discounters really be interested in making such an offer?
When asked, the Rewe Group told the German Press Agency (DPA) that it had already implemented numerous measures to keep costs low for customers.
"Our own-brand ranges at Rewe and Penny in particular offer a wide selection of low-priced products," a spokesperson said, adding that sales and loyalty programmes provide consumers with additional price cuts.
The Kaufland retail chain told DPA that a healthy diet should be affordable: "That's why we already offer our customers one of the largest ranges of food produced in Germany at reasonable prices."Â
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The discounters Aldi Nord and Aldi SĂĽd said: "As a basic supplier, it is the core task to offer everyone reliably good quality at the best possible price..." Adding that wherever possible, the brand is already passing on savings directly to customers.
Lidl offered a similar if slightly more long-winded response. "We are actively leading the way and consistently passing on falling raw material prices or efficiency advantages in operations or supply chains to our customers in order to relieve them financially in their daily shopping," a company spokesperson said.
The supermarket chain Edeka did not comment on the topic when asked by DPA.
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